Domino Sugar

Yes, and as TomN pointed out, the recieving docks were built for 45', 80" wide trailers and they don't want to update. So it's tight. What i used to do is totally unhook from the trlr and park the tractor in front near the phone booth. i don't know if they allow you to do that anymore because the wait in the driver's lounge is a new one too.

Overall no real complaints.

 

in the mid 80s domino was a horrible place to deal with, wait then wait some more. then go to some food warehouse and do it again. They did teach me something........don't haul food. it is a lesson I have never forgotten

 

we're all working for the insurance companies, and for free to boot ! ain't it great ? Wonder if they would still think it was such a great idea to lock up our keys or put on gladhand locks and everything if we sent them a bill for $5 everytime we had to do it ?

 

the one in Arabi, La sucks, i delivered there took 2 hours to unloaded, pulled out had to wait 2 hours to get to scale, had to do a uturn to get in line to scale in so i could reload there, took about 8 hours total, did that every Monday, no more groceries for me ever ever again

 

In May or June 2013 I had to pick up a load at Domino Sugar in Baltimore, MD. I will never forget my experience there. It was the most memorable experience I've had at a shipper/receiver. I showed up at Domino Sugar at about 8 in the morning. I had to wait three hours at a staging area. Then they finally called me to go to the docks to pick up the load. I drive to the docks. I had to wait about an hour for a dock to become available. The docks were made for the old 40' long trailers of the 1930s and 1940s. I had a 53' trailer. A yard dog spotted for me, but it still took me over an hour to back into the space. I had to be very careful not to hit the side mirrors of the trucks next to me. Then I went inside. I find out I had to remove the red air line from my trailer, so a Domino Sugar employee could put a lock over the glad hand. Then I went inside the office. About four hours later they finished loading me. I was allowed to eat lunch at the cafeteria on the premises. When I left, it took about 10-15 minutes for me to pull forward out of the space. THis is the only time in my career where it was difficult to pull forward out of a space at a shipper/receiver.

I got out of Domino Sugar about 10 hours after I arrived.

 

Last time I was in there (couple of years back) , May have been a slow day . But they were using every other dock door . Was a much better visit then the many times I had been in there . Not the worst place I ever been , but in the top ten !

 

Last time I was there, I sat on the hill, waiting all day (I was on time, they were backed up) the gate guards were more interested in listening to their music rather than dealing with questions.

By the time I got the word to scale and then dock, it was 10pm at night, pouring down rain and then, had to dock with all the other spots completely full. Darker than you know what, backing up in an area poorly lit, designed for something half my length, into a spot between 2 other rigs, with almost no space whatsoever between trucks and having to worry about the other drivers mirrors and trailer doors. The area in front to pull forward had other trailers parked there removing any maneuver room needed to make it possible.

This was the most intense, labor intensive and longest dock procedure in my years of driving. Once finally in, I was not happy at all about it. My gasket came unglued after going inside, having to once again, wait, for around 3 more hours, while the workers goofed off, gossiped, or disappeared altogether.

Absolutely agree it not only sucks, but sucks hard.

With that said, watch it wind up being my next load.......

 

Is it that bad for pneumatic tank drivers too? I've seen food liner and hr Ewell trying to hire drivers in Baltimore and I know they do a lot of business with domino.

Adam

 

Based on what I saw, no. They would roll in, and a while later, roll on out. They take a different route to another location away from the docks and from what I saw, was a pull through route all the way from start to finish. None of them ever sat around parked waiting to be called.

 

Pneumatic tankers do pull through to load, the whole place is a little congested but not that bad. Liquid tanker docks are tight, hardest thing is getting lined up correctly if you haven't been there before, no lines or marks in the bay and they won't help.